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First Post - First Butts - First Ribs - And With Pics!

Hello from Atlanta! Newbie here. My family bought me a Large BGE for Father's day (yes, they really love me!) and I've done about five cooks. My best was this past weekend. I did two 7.5 lb bone-in pork butts and three racks of Baby Backs. I am now totally hooked on cooking on an egg! My family and neighbors were very complimentary on how delicious the pork was and I was amazed at how well it turned out. Eggspecially since this was the first time I've ever attempted to smoke butts or do ribs on any kind of grill/smoker. I learned a good bit on this cook and look forward to putting that knowledge to good use on future cooks. I had some help from a good friend in Nebraska - fellow Egghead posting as BOWHUNR, so a big shout-out to him for the help.

Well, here are some details. I started with a nice clean fire box:

Then I laid a nice bed of lump mixed with Hickory chunks and Peach chips:

Looks Pretty Sweet Huh?

I had already prepped my meat using Car Wash Mike's Rib method and just did a dry rub of Dizzy Pig Dust on the butts:

Then I put them in the refrigerator to wait for the cook later Saturday night. In the meantime, my trusty assistant, Reagan, inspected the cook area for fire hazards.

Men of integrity expect to be believed, but when they aren't, they allow time to prove them right.

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I tested the fit of my plate setter and multi-tier rack with the rib rack to be sure the lid would close. It would, so I waited until about 11:30 Saturday evening and started the fire. Once I had good smoke, I put the meat on and got the temps stabilized at 225. I went to bed with my alarm set for 3:30 AM to get up and take the ribs off. I was using a BGE wireless temp monitor and it went off after about an hour telling me that my dome temp was a little high, so I got up and adjusted it back down, then went back to bed and got right back up at 3:30 to take the ribs off and put them in the fridge. The next morning, I got up and all was still well - meat temp was around 180 and stalled, dome temp was holding steady at 225, so I shook the fire grate to clear it of ash and went to church.

When I came back home from church at 1:00, my dome temp was down to about 174 and the meat temp had dropped to 171!!! I guessed that the grate had clogged with ash, so I opened the vents and gave it a good shake but was a bit too aggressive and wound up dumping have my chunk into the ash pit! ARGGGGG!!!!! Full blown panic now and made a quick call to BOWHUNR who calmly walked me through the crisis. Set the meat out, clean the ash pit, restart the fire and when clear smoke, put the meat back on. I left the temp probe in and the meat never got below 160. Once back on and stabilized at dome temp of about 270, I let the cook continue. I put the ribs back on for a couple hours and was surprised to see the butt temps climb right on up to my meat temp setting of 195. The beeping of the alarm woke me from my much-needed nap on the couch at 3:30. Here is how it looked when I opened her up:

Men of integrity expect to be believed, but when they aren't, they allow time to prove them right.

Welcome aboard OVERULD, glad to see the mothership has approved you to post. No shout out needed for me since I (along with everyone posting here) love to talk anything Green Egg or bbq. I must say you're a pretty fast learner for a southern boy, but I guess all you Georgia boys are born with a bbq gene.

If that's how your first low and slow looked I can't wait to see what's coming on your future cooks. Very nicely done my friend. The only thing I see wrong is that I know for a fact you have a much better looking "trusty assistant" there at casa de OVERULD.

Welcome aboard OVERULD, glad to see the mothership has approved you to post. No shout out needed for me since I (along with everyone posting here) love to talk anything Green Egg or bbq. I must say you're a pretty fast learner for a southern boy, but I guess all you Georgia boys are born with a bbq gene.

If that's how your first low and slow looked I can't wait to see what's coming on your future cooks. Very nicely done my friend. The only thing I see wrong is that I know for a fact you have a much better looking "trusty assistant" there at casa de OVERULD.

Mike

Thanks Mike! Glad to be here. I appreciate the warm welcome from everyone thus far. Just finished a pulled pork sandwich with some of my "other trusty assistant's" homemade slaw - mighty tasty! I just noticed the smoke ring in the photo of my pulled pork. Is that about normal or should I expect to see a deeper smoke ring?

BJ

Men of integrity expect to be believed, but when they aren't, they allow time to prove them right.

Very nice! I would definitely get some claws. Very inexpensive and makes a world of difference pulling. It goes from a 20 minute process to a 3 minute process. I have read that the colder the meat is when it goes on, the better it takes the early smoke thus creating a better smoke ring. Not positive it is true but I get mine as close to 32 degrees as I can before each cook and I have gotten better smoke rings since. So in my opinion, that must be true.

Thanks for the positive input all! Bowhunr walked me through the process before hand and I read a lot of posts here, and at some other sites he had recommended to me. I didn't get much sleep Saturday night but sure ate good Sunday evening when our guests arrived - then slept like a baby!

Mike - I have already spent so much on eggcessories that Beth thinks I'm restoring another muscle car! But a pit controller sounds like a good investment in even more amazing cooks...yeah, that's the ticket!

BJ

Men of integrity expect to be believed, but when they aren't, they allow time to prove them right.

@OVERULD I would go and buy her jewelry now because after the BBQ pit controller you are going to need another EGG. When I first started I said to myself "why do people have multiple eggs?". I now have three and fully expect to buy a mini come next tax return. Welcome to the cult.

I raise my kids, cook and golf. When work gets in the way I'm pissed, I'm pissed off 48 weeks a year.

Inbetween Iowa and Colorado, not close to anything remotely entertaining outside of football season.

@OVERULD I would go and buy her jewelry now because after the BBQ pit controller you are going to need another EGG. When I first started I said to myself "why do people have multiple eggs?". I now have three and fully expect to buy a mini come next tax return. Welcome to the cult.

Here we go! I'm already thinking of how my cooking table is going to look! When I was spending money on muscle cars I bought her some nice bling that she refers to as "Her GTO" ! Guess it's time to get her an "Egg" for the other hand!

BJ

Men of integrity expect to be believed, but when they aren't, they allow time to prove them right.